[elus2]

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This rules out some otherwise good ideas...for example jurollo's regional food review idea...I'm in NJ, so I might visit a sight about NJ Restaurants...but I'd have no interest at all in following a link to Las Vegas restaurants...so we'd be losing out on one of the big benefits of doing this project as a group

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Untrue. By creating a north american/international network of restaurant reviewers, we can drive our local traffic to others within the network when these people visit other cities. For example if I have a loyal readership in Vancouver and some of them visit Las Vegas for a weekend, if they've looked around the site long enough they'll know that i'm part of a network of other independent restaurant reviewers. If they like the content I've provided, chances are they'll give other people i've linked to a look to see if those guys can deliver the goods as well.

In my opinion, using the internet to deliver locally targeted marketing initiatives still has a long way to go in this industry. There are plenty of business models that can work too. Selling ad space to local restaurants, charging a fee for emailing our list with coupon offers, etc. By joining together and creating unique and valuable content we'd be able to tap into a highly targeted/motivated demographic willing to spend money.